PROFESSOR TYNDALL. 64.5 



the early hours of the afternoon glided away without any sign of 

 my companions, and the sun got low, things began to look serious. 

 Neither the people at the Montanvert, nor those at Chamounix, 

 knew anything about our intentions. In our way from the Mon- 

 tanvert we had had to cross some troublesome crevasses, and I knew 

 nothing about the route down to Chamounix. If any accident 

 had happened to my friends I could not help them ; nor could I 

 reckon upon getting assistance from Chamounix, unless, perhaps, 

 I set fire to the timbers which sheltered me. My anxiety and per- 

 plexity may be imagined, and at last, as it grew colder, I went 

 into the hut to ponder over the situation. As I sat over the em- 

 bers, trying to see my way to some clear conclusion, I suddenly 

 heard the clink of an alpenstock upon the rock at the foot of the 

 Grands Mulcts. The sound has ever since been pleasant to my 

 ear ; and, rushing out, I saw the three slowly making their way 

 up Tyndall pretty well exhausted, for the first and last time I 

 ever saw him in that condition ; Hirst snow-blind ; and the guide 

 thoroughly used up. He had mistaken the route and led the 

 party into all sorts of superfluous difficulties. 



As we intended to have descended to Chamounix, without 

 stopping a second night at the Grands Mulets, provisions were 

 not over-abundant and there were no candles. I am proud to 

 say I made myself useful in various ways ; among other func- 

 tions, performing that of a chandelier with a perpetual succes- 

 sion of lighted lucifer matches. We were soon a merry com- 

 pany ; and the next day we descended in glory, to the great dis- 

 gust of the orthodox guides of Chamounix, to whom an ascent 

 of Mont Blanc, up to that time, had meant the organization of 

 a large and profitable expedition. 



The love for Alpine scenery and Alpine climbing, which re- 

 mained with Tyndall to the last, began, or at any rate became 

 intensified into a passion, with this journey; and, at the same 

 time, he laid the foundations of his well-known and highly im- 

 portant work upon glaciers and glacier movement. His first 

 paper on this subject was presented to the Royal Society in 

 1857, and bears my name as well as his own, in spite of all my 

 protests to the contrary. For beyond two or three little observa- 

 tions, and perhaps some criticism, I contributed nothing toward it, 

 and all that is important is Tyndall's own. But he was singularly 

 scrupulous even punctilious on points of scientific honor. It 

 would have been intolerable to him to have it supposed that he 

 had used even suggestions of others, without acknowledgment ; 

 so I, being thicker skinned, put up with the possibility of being 

 considered a daw in borrowed plumes. The memoir became the 

 starting-point of a long and hot controversy. While it was at its 

 height, some supporters of the other side endeavored to throw the 



